LDN - Sports

Flyers top Avs for 10th straight win

[December 15, 2016] DENVER -- Roman Lyubimov and Brayden Schenn scored goals 1:46 apart early in the third period, and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Wednesday for their 10th straight win.

Wayne Simmonds and Michael Del Zotto also scored and Steve Mason had 26 saves for Philadelphia.

The winning streak is the Flyers' longest since 1985 and ties for the fourth longest in franchise history.

Philadelphia (19-10-3) had winning streaks of 13 and 11 games in the 1984-85 season and went on to reach the Stanley Cup Finals that season.

Matt Duchene had two goals and Rene Bourque scored for the Avalanche (11-16-1), who have lost six in a row at home. Calvin Pickard stopped 21 shots for Colorado.

The game was tied after two when the Flyers took control on a miscue by Colorado.

Bourque skated from behind his own net when Pierre-Edouard Bellemare checked him off the puck. Lyubimov corralled it in the right faceoff circle and beat Pickard with a slapshot at 3:30 of the third.

Schenn made it 4-2 at 5:16 when he slipped the puck past Pickard and the left post. It was his ninth of the season and fifth in the last three games.

Duchene made it a one-goal game with his second of the game and 12th of the season at 15:15. Pickard came off for an extra skater with 1:31 left but Colorado couldn't score.

After a scoreless first period, the goals came in bunches in the second. Del Zotto got the first one when he knocked in his own rebound at 4:01 to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead.

Bourque tied it at 12:14 when he got the puck off the faceoff, wheeled around and snapped a shot past Mason for his ninth of the season.

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Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto (15) scores a goal against Colorado Avalanche goalie Calvin Pickard (31) as center Mikhail Grigorenko (25) looks on in the second period at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Duchene made it 2-1 when he scored on a rebound at 16:34 of the period, but 23 seconds later Simmonds tied it with his team-leading 16th goal.

Philadelphia appeared to score again 1:18 after Simmonds' goal but a video review showed Bellemare tipped it past Pickard with a high stick.

NOTES: Colorado G Semyon Varlamov was out with a groin injury that coach Jared Bednar said he didn't think was serious. The Avalanche recalled G Spencer Martin from San Antonio of the AHL to serve as Calvin Pickard's backup for the game. ... The Flyers will be without D Mark Streit for two weeks with a left shoulder injury. D Shayne Gostisbehere returned after missing a game with a hand injury and took Streit's place in the lineup. ... Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog played his second game and first at home in a month after missing 10 with a lower-body injury. ... Philadelphia RW Jakub Voracek was named one of the NHL's three stars for last week after amassing three goals and six assists in four games.

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